Black History

Everyday People of the American Revolution

April 6, 2022 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

In this episode of the Ben Franklin’s World podcast, Woody Holton, a Professor of History at the University of South Carolina and the author of Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution (Simon Schuster, 2021), discusses with Liz how we can better see and understand the American Revolution as a whole event.

Holton’s widely acclaimed book describes the origins and crucial battles of the American Revolution from Lexington and Concord to the British surrender at Yorktown, always focusing on marginalized Americans — enslaved Africans and African Americans, Native Americans, women, and dissenters — and on overlooked factors such as weather, North America’s unique geography, chance, misperception, attempts to manipulate public opinion, and (most of all) disease. [Read more…] about Everyday People of the American Revolution

Albany’s Rapp Road Community & The Great Migration

March 30, 2022 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

On this episode of A New York Minute In History, Devin Lander and Lauren Roberts delve into the history of Albany County’s Rapp Road Community, an African American neighborhood built by southern immigrants who moved north for a better life in the late 1920s.

Program guests include Stephanie Woodward, board member of the Rapp Road Historical Association; and Dr. Jennifer Lemak, Chief Curator of the history collection at the New York State Museum, and author of Southern Life, Northern City: The History of Albany’s Rapp Road Community (SUNY Press, 2008). [Read more…] about Albany’s Rapp Road Community & The Great Migration

“Labor’s Slaves in the Adirondacks”: Building the Adirondack Railroad

March 26, 2022 by John Warren 4 Comments

The St. Lawrence & Adirondack Railroad, also known as the Mohawk & Malone – eventually owned by the New York Central and called the Adirondack Line or the Adirondack Railroad ran directly through the Adirondacks from Herkimer (near Utica) to Malone connecting the rail lines along the Mohawk River to the Main Trunk Line running into Montreal. The line is often attributed to William Seward Webb, but it was the men who actually built the line that are the subject of this essay.

On March 29, 1892 a Boston Globe article titled “Labor’s Slaves in the Adirondacks” reported that Utica “resembled Washington during war times, hundreds of penniless and destitute Negroes are camped out tonight in the temporary places of shelter given them, and the citizens of Utica are consulting as to the best means of returning them to their homes.”

The Globe told readers that all night, “runaway slaves” had been coming into town. One hundred and fifty of them, mostly black laborers from the Deep South, but some recently arrived European immigrants as well. [Read more…] about “Labor’s Slaves in the Adirondacks”: Building the Adirondack Railroad

New Netherland: Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York

March 23, 2022 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

In this episode of the Ben Franklin’s World Podcast, Andrea Mosterman, an Associate Professor of History at the University of New Orleans and author of Spaces of Enslavement: A History of Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York (Cornell Univ. Press, 2021), joins us to explore what life was like in New Netherland and early New York, especially for the enslaved people who did much of the work to build this Dutch, and later English, colony. [Read more…] about New Netherland: Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York

Documents Reveal Sojourner Truth’s Battle to Free Her Son from Slavery

March 15, 2022 by Alan J. Singer 1 Comment

In February 2022, the New York State Archives announced that archivists had uncovered court records detailing the 1828 legal battle by Sojourner Truth to secure her enslaved son Peter’s freedom. According to archivist Jim Folts, this case was the first time in United States history that a Black woman successfully sued a White man for a family member’s freedom.

After passage of the New York State Gradual Emancipation Act in 1799, some slaveholders illegally sold enslaved Africans to Southern planters for the expanding cotton industry. When Sojourner Truth, then known as Isabella Van Wagenen, escaped from enslavement in 1826, her former “owner,” John J. Dumont of New Paltz, Ulster County, NY, sold her five-year old son Peter to Eleazer Gedney who planned to take the boy with him to England.

When this plan fell through, Eleazer Gedney sold Peter to his brother, Solomon Gedney, who resold Peter to their sister’s husband, a man named Fowler, who was a wealthy Alabama planter. [Read more…] about Documents Reveal Sojourner Truth’s Battle to Free Her Son from Slavery

Sterling Forest State Park Expands With Purchase of Historic Black Resort

March 7, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Sterling Forest State Park in Orange County, NY is growing by an additional 130 acres that includes a portion of the former Greenwood Forest Farms, the first resort in New York State incorporated by and for Black families.

Between its founding in 1919 and through the 1960s, a portion of this property was Greenwood Forest Farms, which was founded by a group of prominent Black families and civic leaders from New York City, the resort became a haven for cultural and civil rights leaders from Harlem and Brooklyn, including writer Langston Hughes. Some descendants of the original pioneers now live in the neighborhood year-round. [Read more…] about Sterling Forest State Park Expands With Purchase of Historic Black Resort

New Documentary Celebrate Schenectady Black History

March 7, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

In Celebration of Black History Month, the Schenectady County Historical Society has released A History Erased: Rediscovering Black Schenectady, a new documentary exploring the history of Black people in Schenectady.

A History Erased: Rediscovering Black Schenectady is produced by SCHS and investigates the missing story of Schenectady’s 19th century Black population. From the beginning, Schenectady’s African American population was a small and marginalized community. This documentary looks at what happened to Black Schenectadians over the course of the 1800s; how they responded to the end of slavery, to industrialization, and to ongoing racial concerns; why the small community nearly vanished; and the marks it left on Schenectady’s culture and society. [Read more…] about New Documentary Celebrate Schenectady Black History

New Sojourner Truth State Park in Kingston Opening This Spring

March 4, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Governor Hochul has announced that a new State Park to open to the public later this spring in Kingston, Ulster County, NY will be named for 19th century African American abolitionist and suffragist Sojourner Truth.

Covering more than 500 acres and a mile of Hudson River shoreline, this park was once an industrial site for production of cement, quarry stone, and ice harvesting. Sojourner Truth State Park will be first new State Park since 2019. [Read more…] about New Sojourner Truth State Park in Kingston Opening This Spring

Peterboro’s National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum

March 1, 2022 by Milton Sernett 1 Comment

Members of the Cabinet of Freedom of the National Abolition Hall of Fame (NAHOF) went to the Great New York Fair for several years to introduce the public to a unique museum that occupies the second floor of the Smithfield Community Center in Peterboro, New York.

On one of these occasions, NAHOF occupied a booth in the Center of Progress building. Hundreds of fair-goers went by the NAHOF location. Some who stopped to hear about NAHOF would ask, “Where is Peterboro?” NAHOF hosts explained that Peterboro is a small hamlet in the heart of Madison County. Few who passed by stayed long enough to hear about what the Museum had to offer. NAHOF representatives began wearing t-shirts that carried the words “Where is Peterboro?” on the front and on the back were the words “North of Pleasant Valley, South of Clockville, East of Fenner, West of Salem.” [Read more…] about Peterboro’s National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum

Hudson, NY Black History Online Archive Launching with Panel Discussion

February 28, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Hudson Area Library will host “History of the Black Community in Hudson: A Discussion of the Black Legacy Association of Columbia County (BLACC) Collection,” an introduction to the library’s website dedicated to the Black Legacy Association of Columbia County (BLACC) Oral History Project Collection set for Thursday, March 3rd. [Read more…] about Hudson, NY Black History Online Archive Launching with Panel Discussion